Each com­pet­ing group will present a wel­come and farewell dance, one of which must in­clude a chant in lo­cal lan­guage, along with a third dance that can be a tra­di­tional dance or fu­sion piece com­bin­ing tra­di­tional moves with con­tem­po­rary sounds.

With much en­thu­si­asm and pas­sion to re­turn, the group has se­cured funds from the Les­ley Couzens Arts Fel­low­ship, named in hon­our of Mandurah Per­form­ing Arts Cen­tre (MPAC) pro­duc­tion su­per­vi­sor, and a match­ing con­tri­bu­tion for travel from the Syd­ney Opera House.

MPAC gen­eral man­ager Guy Boyce first met the group per­form­ing at an open day at Mandurah’s Win­jan Com­mu­nity Cen­tre and was taken by their en­ergy, ta­lent and com­mit­ment.

“We first ar­ranged for them to per­form at the WA Re­gional Arts Sum­mit at MPAC and as a re­sult they were in­vited to per­form at the WA State Art and Cul­ture Part­ner­ship Hon­ours Awards Cer­e­mony at the State The­atre Cen­tre,’’ he said.